The sanity of your database becomes more and more important nowadays. As Bill Kaplan said “snakes in your database” are no laughing. If you think you have done everything possible to keep these critters from putting a strangehold on your email marketing campaigns, think again.

He is right.

Email marketing is not about when “majority” of the names and addresses still work, there is no harm involved. It could take a handful of complaints to have the ISP block your campaign entirely.

Scary.

According to Kaplan, the most venomous “snakes” in your database can be boiled down to three types:

1. Bouncing email adders. All ISPs have bounce thresholds. Never exceed this number or they will begin to put a dynamic block on your email campaign.
2. “This is Spam” button-clicking vipers. ISPs track this type of click and block your campaign if enough recipients click it.
3. Spamtrap and honeypot vermin. Sending emails to these addresses, which are not actually human addresses but are there to trap spammers. Such addresses can slip in if improper name acquisition method was used.

Here are the summaries of techniques to remove the snakes from your database. They are both simple and cost-effective.

• Clean regularly. Have your email addresses cleaned and supressed on a monthly basis.
• Be more aggressive about removing bounces from your files. For AOL, one bounce is sufficient. For others, two.
• Employ validation of email during registration.
• Avoid list rental, co-registration, list swapping, etc., if you are unable to validate entries.

[Mediapost Publications]